She was speaking from the occupied city on Al Jazeera English’s The Stream on 20 October, along with Palestinian writers Farah Baker in Gaza, Mariam Barghouti in Ramallah and the UK journalist Ben White.

Watch the video above.

Everything to lose

“This explosion was always waiting to happen,” Hassan said.

Jerusalem has been “boiling” since the July 2014 abduction and burning to death of teenager Muhammad Abu Khudair by several Israeli Jews, she explained.

Hassan also challenged the common claim that Palestinians who engage in “lone wolf” attacks do so because they have “nothing left to lose.”

“I’ve been privileged enough to meet families of martyrs who’ve lost their lives in the past couple of months and over the last few years,” Hassan said.

“Every single person, every single young man or woman has so much to lose,” she added. “They have families, they have dreams, they have aspirations. Every single one of them has his or her very individual and unique story, very individual and unique dreams.”

“Muhannad Halabi was a very bright law student, very eloquent, very articulate,” she said.